Slow PC
How can I keep my computer running well. I do regularly do the clean disc and defragment routines, but my PC still seems to be slow
Asked by: Richard Hall
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November 11th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Hi Richard,
You’re doing the right thing in regularly cleaning out temporary files and defragging the hard disk.
If your PC is still running slowly, have you assessed how much RAM it has? If you’re running XP, I regard 1GB as the bare minimum. If you’re on Vista, aim for 2GB.
If your PC has only 512MB of RAM, for instance, it will spend a lot of its time swapping the contents of RAM out to the hard disk, to an area called the swapfile or “virtual memory”, in order to release RAM for other programs. A symptom of this is that the hard disk always seems very busy. More RAM will reduce the need to use the swapfile and the PC will be more responsive.
RAM is relatively cheap nowadays and it’s a quick and easy way to improve your PC’s performance, but you do need to check that you are geting the right type of RAM and that the PC can use the amount of RAM you have in mind – check on the website of the PC’s manufacturer for technical information on memory upgrades.